Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - September 30th

You may have seen a week or so ago that Jair Bolsonaro (former president of Brazil) was convicted of plotting a coup, and sentenced to prison. 

What I find interesting about it is that this is a modern story about a 1st world nation, where the former president plotted a means to regain control of the office. He hadn't actually taken many tangible steps, but there was enough to convict him and prevent him from going at it again. 

While in our (supposed) 1st world nation here in the US, we had a former president actually stage a coup.  It started to happen, but got thwarted.  And yes, there was supporting evidence that this was all planned by him and he started it in motion. A coup. In the US. That people shrugged at. 

But our government failed to actually do anything about it. He wasn't charged. He wasn't held accountable. And then, he managed to win another election and has now subverted the government, effectively finalizing the coup, after a 4 year gap. 

Why in the world did the Biden administration do nothing about those actions?! 

Once someone sets up a coup, they never stop coming. Until they are charged and arrested, or wind up dead. 

And here we are. 

Brazil was better at handling the situation than we were.  (to be fair, maybe they did it "right" and maybe they didn't.  But the fact is that they did *something*)

That's insane in my book. 

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Study links frequent, severe heat waves to pollution from major fossil fuel producers


Worth a minute of your time:

A new study has determined that 55 heat waves over the past quarter-century would not have happened without human-caused climate change



Why a non-Pride mural in West Palm Beach remains untouched by the Florida Department of Transportation


Funny how this works. The FDOT is inconsistent in its effort to "remove all murals" from the streets. 

Here's a large mural that isn't about pride - and they haven't said a thing about it. 

I guess it really is about attacking people who idenitfy with the LGBTQ community after all. 




These "plastivore" caterpillars can devour a plastic bag in just 24 hours


Here's another way that we (collectively) are trying to deal with plastic waste. Waxworms are capable of eating through certain types of plastic and digesting it. 

It's not quite ready for a wide scale solution, but as one researcher notes, it sets the stage for finding potential organisms that can be used in various ways to help with the plastic problem. 



Disney to Pay $10 Million to Settle FTC Allegations


This is an unexpected turn of events.  In short, Disney was accused of allowing personal data to be collected from children who viewed kid-directed videos on YouTube without notifying parents or obtaining their consent as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule. 

The rules don't allow for any collection of data unless the parent opts in, though I have to say the rule is a little confusing in how its implemented.  

But its good that there are at least some sort of general protections for kids. The world is scary enough without soliciting directly to them.



I object to stupidity


I am no fan of Elon Musk.  But, moon landing conspiracy theorists taking his comments about starship out of context and saying he just proved the moon landing is fake are really extraordinary. And ridiculously stupid.

The actual context is that musk sees that to get to the moon with starship, the craft will have to refuel in space.  This was always part of the plan for starship (though of course the goal was and is to get to mars). 
 
While it is the most powerful spacecraft man has ever made, it is also very heavy and very large. This is intentional to carry large payloads to a high orbit.

In order to achieve orbit, it uses its 33 rockets and burns all of the fuel it can carry. To get out of earths orbit would take more fuel, and therefore a refueling is required. How much refueling (and how many times in orbit it would need to dock up) would depend on the mission.  His estimate to get to the moon would be 4 refueling stops, as I understand it; that would allow that spacecraft to land on the moon and have enough fuel to return to earth. 

There is a significant amount of science and math that goes into the calculations, much as there was for Apollo. 

Apollo was purpose built to launch, get out of earths atmosphere, then have a burn that sent it toward the moon, a burn to get "lunar insertion," and a burn to get home.  There was some fuel expenditure to do adjustments, but that was mostly planned.  It carried enough fuel for this purpose - and remember that the capsule did not land on the moon, only the lander did, and carried enough fuel for the weight of the craft in order to descend and launch again.

The math here was on paper, and done to the point of precision, using momentum and gravity pulls to their advantage.  And remember that on Apollo 13, the fuel situation was such that a simple return to earth once they encountered the problem was not possible.  They had to continue to the moon and around it, in order to return to earth. That's how precise the calculations were. 

Anyway, the moon landing hoax idiots are taking what musk said out of context.  Essentially "If he says it would take refueling, then he is also saying that the Apollo moon landings could not have happened."

That's really drawing with a broad brush and not understanding the math and science. And not caring about it because they simply have to be right.

That's not what he said, at all.  Though to be fair, he hasn't really disputed it either (he does like to stir the pot). But why let facts, the hard work of men (and women!) who got us to the moon, or science for that matter, get in the way of a good story?!



We've reached a weird point where established science is "up for interpretation"

The man whose brain is controlled by a worm told us that he would get to the bottom of what causes autism! There had to be *a* reason for it. 

And last week, he did. RFK published some nonsense findings that the reason for it is ... drum roll... the use of Tylenol by pregnant women. 

There is nothing to back this up (well except for a guy who claims to be a scientist but who was paid handsomely to repeat whatever was fed to him), and the chorus of people who simply parrot what they are told, so it becomes more widespread.

And meanwhile the science says something else entirely (ie that there is no specific link to any one thing, drug or otherwise). 

But science can suck it. Just trust him! He knows what's best. And then the orange menace repeated the claim as fact. So here we are. 

The makers of Tylenol are not feeling it since this has a direct impact on their business. 

And how long until aggrieved parents who have children that are autistic sue the manufacturer? And in today's climate, who knows, maybe they could win. 

I wonder what axe RFK and T-rump have to grind against Tylenol….


Bonus: Apparently, we've also reached a point where "the powers that be" are seeing the boogeyman everywhere. 

The attached story is about "Hidden radios in solar power led highway signs" … but, for what purpose? And of course we have tools to intercept and disrupt radio waves. So are we trying to understand if they actually exist? Or how they are being used if they do? No. Its just "hey it's a problem" with nothing to back it up. Dumbassery is alive and well. 




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